I finally got a copy of the BIGS, and let me tell ya, I like it! I played the demo several times and found the controls to be confusing and un-smooth (no, that’s not a word, but it fits here).

Anyhoo, I got it this weekend and decided to pop it into the ol’ 360 yesterday. What I found was a very good, arcade-y game. As a baseball fan and having the playoffs upon us, I thought this could really get me hyped about watching a Rockies and potentially Cleveland World Series.

I started with the Home Run Derby. Actually, there’s 2 of them. One is your traditional fare. First one to 10 homers wins basically. But the second one is a home run pinball game. It sets you in the middle of Times Square and lets you have at it with all the marquees and obstacles that comprise of downtown N.Y. That was fun. A lot of fun. It took a bit to get accustomed to the aiming, but once I got it down, I was hitting signs all over the place!

My next objective was to check out this rookie challenge. You create your own rookie and assign him to the team your going to play as. The downfall is that there aren’t a lot of customization choices, but as you continue through the game, you can add sunglasses, a theme song, and several other options which gives your player a little added depth. I was happily surprised by this and it kept the interest in my player growing. The other thing is that as you go through games, situations, and scenarios, it adds points that you can apply to your rookie stats. You can bulk up and make him a power hitter, give him speed, or make him a better fielder. The options of how you do it is completely up to how you spread the points around. This made me decide early on how I wanted to develop my player. I made him a speed/power combo and am working on his contact.

Another great thing about this game is that it IS an arcade game. It doesn’t have the set 180 + game schedule, but rather, it assigns games as you progress. My first couple of games were against the Royals and Tampa Bay. As I completed those, it unlocked Seattle and Detroit. Besides that, you don’t necessarily play traditional 9 inning games. In fact, it gives you a few different options when going to an opposing ballpark. Like in Seattle, I had to play a best of three, three inning games. The next objective was to be in the bottom of the ninth and hold the lead. In Tampa Bay, I had to get a hit with my rookie player in a five inning game and then had to beat the Rays in a five inning game. The last challenge at each stadium is the “steal” challenge. You beat the team in a five inning game and you get to steal a player and add him to your own roster. My Chicago White Sox now has the following order….Vernon Wells, my rookie character, David Ortiz, Paul Konerko, A-Rod, Joe Mauer, Alex Gordon, Tad Iguchi, and Dye. My pitching staff is just as sick! The cool thing about stealing players is that you only get 10 steals throughout your “season”. This gives a little strategy to who you want and how to rebuild your team. You also only have 3 starting pitchers and 3 relievers, so it provides a good balance while still loading up on playmakers and superstars.

The gameplay is really fluid in my opinion. I am not a fan of the current MLB game that is out as I find it to be clunky. I prefer to have a timing pitching/batting sequence and the BIGS delivers on that. The one fault I find with the gameplay is the quirkiness of the runners. To select a runner, you tap the button that displays above them as they are running the bases. The problem is when a runner is about to reach 2nd, the button will change from the “B” to the “Y”. Once you do select them, you have to hold the LS in the direction of the base they are going to. The other issue that I have with that is it’ll look like they are standing on 3rd in the hud, yet are not on the base. I have been thrown out more than a few times when this has happened.

The other problem I have with the actual play is that the computer is more apt to make a “great play catch” than you are. Many times have I hit the ball well only to have the A.I. rob me. This happened exactly five times in a row, so I know it’s not just randomness.

Overall, this game was something that I thought I’d like in small spurts. Instead, I find that I’ve played it so much that I’m actually forming a blister on my thumb. With the different challenges and the achievements to strive for against each team, I want to keep playing so I can build up my rookie and my team for the post season. I haven’t enjoyed a baseball game as much as this since the old Triple Play series! Oh, and it helps that the game does look good too!

And as I initially stated in my opening, once I went through the tutorial (which isn’t on the demo), the controls made a lot more sense. Hence, don’t always put stock into the good and bad of demos!

So my rating for this is a 4.5 out of 5. If they can fix the baserunning errors by next season, then I wouldn’t hesitate to give this a 5!